Saint Joseph Catholic Church

The sole bishop in Estonia, where only 0.8% of people are Catholic, discussed a small but unprecedented rise in conversions this year.

Bishop Philippe Jourdan received 48 adults into the Church at Easter; 33 of them were unbaptized.

“We had never had so many,” Bishop Jourdan told the National Catholic Register. “Previously, catechumens were often in the 30-to-40 age bracket. Now, they are much more often in their 20s.”

Paul III Nona, who was elected Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church last month, was enthroned in Baghdad on May 29.

Syriac Press reported that the new Patriarch outlined six priorities, including unity in the Church, the spiritual life, and “authentic identity”: “preserving liturgical traditions, the Syriac-Aramaic language, customs, and Eastern Christian spiritual philosophy.”

The departing chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom told EWTN News that the “situation for religious freedom in the world today is worse than it was when I came on the commission [in 2022], and certainly worse than it was a decade ago.”

Stephen Schneck lamented the worsening situation in India and China, the world’s two most populous nations.

Schneck said that India “is among the worst countries in the global community in regards to religious freedom from the analysis that has been done by the commission over the last decade or so.”

The plight of religious believers in China “gets worse and worse,” he added, and “itʼs not just limited to individuals. Weʼre talking about whole populations here—the Uyghur Muslims, the Tibetan Buddhists, Christians.”

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